154 M 1 . WASHBURN AND EDWINA ABBOTT 



sluggish and the tamest of the trio. Meshach was an animal 

 with pronounced individuality, He was from birth smaller than 

 the others, and very nervous; until he was about three months 

 old he trembled violently whenever he was picked up. He was 

 also more inclined to show anger by biting, or by thumping 

 with his hind legs on the floor. On one occasion he was acci- 

 dentally dropped, whereupon he had a kind of convulsion and 

 stiffened out as if dead; he soon recovered, however. When 

 the young rabbits were about two weeks old they were kept in 

 a packing box, the sides of which were fully two feet high. The 

 room in which the box stood was cold, especially at night. One 

 morning Meshach was missing, and was found to have climbed 

 out of the box — a feat which the others did not accomplish for 

 more than a week later, — made his way across the room to the 

 radiator, and established himself in the warmest corner behind 

 it. The most striking instance of the unusual temperament of 

 this small rabbit is found in the behavior which is responsible 

 for the fact that he does not shine in the records. As will be 

 seen, he learned like the others to discriminate red from grey. 

 The other rabbits tested with red and black had found it impos- 

 sible to distinguish them. As the term drew near a close in 

 the spring, we decided to select one of the rabbits and train it 

 continuously with red and black until the end, so that we might 

 be sure of having given sufficient opportunity for acquiring the 

 discrimination if it could be done. The choice fell upon Meshach. 

 For the first three days he happened to make six or seven right 

 choices out of ten : then came two days in which he went wrong 

 as often as right; and on the next day after this, on being put 

 down before the experiment box, he immediately ran away. 

 Nothing would induce him any longer to push the doors. In 

 the many subsequent trials on that day and on succeeding days, 

 he would thump on the ground with his hind legs, make the 

 peculiar shrill grunt which seems to be the only vocal expression 

 of emotion a rabbit has, and run away on being confronted with 

 the box. His appetite for the food that w y as given him was as 

 keen as ever, but he never again pushed a door of the box. It 

 seemed odd that a well-formed habit should be so quickly and 

 finally inhibited by an experience of no more poignant unpleas- 

 antness than merely pushing at a door which did not open. No 

 pain was involved, for the rabbits seldom pushed hard at a door 



